Wednesday, January 2, 2008

I think one of the TSN webmasters is having a bit of a fun with Oiler fans. If you happen to read their preview of tonight's PPV game against St. Louis, the one all about how the Oilers need to "snap a long losing streak" (fair enough, I guess), you'll notice that the picture they use of "Oilers celebrating" is clearly from the pre-season. I know this has been a tough year, but surely we've had at least one celebratory huddle in the post-Trukhno/Syvret era. Noting also that Raffi Torres is also in the picture, that's at least three of five featured Oilers who haven't played in at least two weeks. The good times are here to stay, folks.

That said: any bets on when we'll win our next game? How about our next win in regulation?

On a vaguely unrelated note—hey, I post with the changing seasons, I need to get everything I can in—Andrew Cogliano has come under some fire of late, and I'd like to stick up for my man, if only because I think he's got the kind of smile that makes women giggle coyly and consider a career as a dental hygienist. He's certainly slowed down of late (4pts, -6 in December, versus 15pts, +1 in October and November), but if you take a look at Desjardins' game log, you'll notice that since December started, Cogliano has basically been playing some of the toughest competition with some of the worst linemates. Now, to be fair, that game log currently only goes to about halfway through the month, and while quality of opposition might have changed, if memory serves of quality of teammates certainly did not. Cogliano's had his problems, but for the first part of his December, he played with Ladislav Smid more than any other Oilers defenceman: that's going to make it tough to produce.

And anyway, despite that, he's still sixth in rookie scoring with about a minute less ice time than anyone in the top nine (something I find almost inexplicable is that Gagner has drawn more minutes than Cogliano) and points in every situation (that is, even, powerplay and shorthanded). I think time spent with Moreau and Pisani should once again bump him up to roughly .5ppg, as well as improve his underlying stats. I think Cogs is a Shawn Horcoff-like player with more speed, and given the right opportunity (the one he's in now, maybe even a second-line soft minutes situation), he'll be just fine, especially for a rookie.